Hermopolis Parva

Hermopolis Parva

A titular see of Ægyptus Prima, suffragan of Alexandria. Its ancient name, Dimanhoru or Tema-en-Hor, signifies the town of Horus. The Copts call it Tuininhor, and the Arabs, Damanhur. Situated on the canal uniting Lake Mareotis (Mariout) to the Canopic branch of the Nile, it has no history and no ruins. It was near Damanhur that, on 10 July, 1798, Bonaparte, walking unaccompanied, barely escaped being taken by the Mamelukes. The modem Damanhur, forty miles from Alexandria, on the Cairo-Alexandria railway, has 20,000 inhabitants and is the chief town of the province of Behera. It is famous for its silk, linen, and cotton stuffs. Lequien (Or. Christ., II, 513 sqq.) mentions a dozen bishops of Hermopolis Parva, among them Dracontius, about 354, who suffered exile for the faith under Constantius; St. Isidore, his successor (feast kept 3 January); Dioscorus, the oldest of the four famous monks of Nitria, known as the Tall Brethren.

VENABLES in Dict. Christ. Biog., s. v. Dioscorus; SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geogr.; DE ROUGÉ, Géographie ancienne de la Basse Egypte (Paris, 1891).

S. PÉTRIDÈS